Uniform pressure roller for textile utilization

ABSTRACT

THE DISCLOSURE DESCRIBES A ROLLER FOR EXERTING UNIFORM PRESSURE OVER THE LENGTH THEREOF, PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE TO TEXTILES, HAVING A CENTRAL CORE AND A CYLINDRICAL SHELL ENCLOSING THE CORE, WITH AN ANNULAR SPACED SEPARATING THE TWO. THE SHELL IS SUPPORTED ON THE CORE BY A TWO RING BEARING ASSEMBLY WITH SPHERICAL COOPERATING SURFACES, ONE OF SAID ASSEMBLIES BEING MOVABLE ON THE CORE, WHILE THE OTHER IS SECURED AGAINST AXIAL MOVEMENT.

NOV. 9 1971 J. VERNAZZA ETAL ,68,19

UNIFORM PRESSURE ROLLER FOR TEXTILE UTILIZATION Filed 001;. 51, 1969 INVlU-WI'UH? JULIUS VEHNAZZAW KARL GRAF s;

ATTOHNICY United States 3,618,190 UNIFORM PRESSURE ROLLER FOR TEXTILE UTILIZATION Julius Vernazza, Wahlheim, and Karl Grafen, Landgraben, Germany, assignors to H. Krantz, Aachen,

Germany Filed Oct. 31, 1969, Ser. No. 872,946 Int. Cl. 1321b 13/02 U.S. Cl. 29-116 AD 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to a uniform pressure roller for application particularly to textile webs, which may be used in calendars and other similar machinery in which textile webs are to be treated with uniform pressure over the entire width of the roller. Since the pressure mounts to several tons, normally rollers will be deflected, resulting in the pressure decreasing toward the center of the roller as compared to the ends of the roller.

It is among the principal objects of the present invention to provide a uniform pressure roller that will uniformly exert pressure in the center of the roller as Well as at the ends of the roller.

It has not been found readily possible to compensate for the deflection or unevenness of the rollers by shaping them transversely of the fabric or by arranging them in special manners, nor has it been found readily possible to prevent such deflection by providing supporting members distributed over the width of the roller or to attempt to subject the roller to counterbending or deflecting forces.

It is among the further objects of the present invention therefore to provide a central inexpensive, and reliable method of preventing deflection which would cause the pressure to decrease toward the roller center as compared to its ends, and which will automatically compensate for any forces tending to cause deflection of the rollers.

A further object is to provide a uniform pressure roller which will not require any special shaping or crosswise arrangement and which will not require supporting members distributed over the width thereof.

A still further object is to provide a uniform pressure roller without any counter-deflection or counter-bending forces and without any requirement for crowning the circumference of at least one roller of each pair of squeezing rollers, which would be only useful where compensation is made for deflection under one specific range of pressures.

A still further object is to design uniform pressure rollers without any cantilevered side elements, which are not generally adaptable and which may yield an undesirable overelastic resiliency toward the ends of the roller,

thus avoiding a uniform pressure over the entire Working width of the pressure roller.

It has been found that even if the shafts of the pair of rollers which are used for pressure generation on the textile or other web are disposed out of parallelism but slightly crosswise so that the center line distance in the center of the rollers is smaller than at their ends, this causes an undesirably disadvantageous result in the feeding in and putting out of the textile web, and moreover the angle at which the shafts cross must be adjustable to equalize the various amounts of deflection under various operating pressures, whcih is not readily possible in normal operating conditions.

It has not been found satisfactory to support the pressure rollers over their width by supporting rollers directly or through a supporting roller, since such a plurality of supports will result in weighting and heavy construction with high costs and with high wear at the points of support.

In addition, the placement of supports under deflection in the interior of hollow rollers gives rise to considerable complications and trouble'prone designs, particularly where the space within the rollers is equipped with pres sure chambers for a fluid which counteracts deflection of the roller under pressure.

A central support inside of the roller with a dead or alive supporting disc supported by the shaft ends does not function satisfactorily, nor can the deflection be counteracted by reenforcing the wall of the roller shell inwardly toward the center of the roller, since this is only effective against a predetermined certain pressure.

Nor has it been found satisfactory to provide a roller with a central core accommodating the shaft ends and of a roller shell which supports itself at intervals or spaced places on the core but otherwise provides a clearance and supports itself on the core by supporting members penetrating the shell around the core from the outside. This design may eliminate relative motion causing wear be tween the core and the shell so that close manufacturing tolerances are unnecessary.

However, in practical application it has been found that the supporting members transmitting the turning movement or torque between the core and the roller shell may lose their firm seating after a short period of usage, which results in an alternating pressure on the connections between the roller shell and the core, with a breakage of the supporting members.

It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide a novel uniform pressure roller, whose deflection, even under various operating pressures, will be so insignificant for operation and practice that there will be uniform pressure over the width of the roller applied to the web to be treated without the various undesirable constructions above set forth.

Still further objects and advantages will appear in the more detailed description set forth below, it being understood, however, that this more detailed description is given by way of illustration and explanation only and not by way of limitation, since various changes therein may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

In the preferred form of the invention the roller will be formed of a core and a shell surrounding it, with an intervening free annular space, which is supported upon the core by two supporting members adjacent each end,

but if desired a plurality of more than two. The supporting members in the preferred form of the invention consist of a pair of two ring bearing assemblies each with spherical cooperating surfaces desirably with One of the rings having a concave bearing surface applied to the outer shell and the other ring having the convex bearing surface carried on the core, which extend 360 around the core and inside the outer shell at a distance space inside of the ends of the core and from the middle of the width of the core.

It is a specific feature that one of the bearing rings is actually axially movable on the core, Whereas the other is secured against axial movement.

In one preferred form of the invention, the supporting bearing assemblies are located approximately one-quarter of the roller width away from the roller ends so that the space between the two bearing assemblies will be one-half of the roller width.

This arrangement most satisfactorily assures that the deflections of the roller shell are the same at the center as at the ends of the pressure roller. The bending or deflection of the core and the roller shell occurring when the roller of the present invention is under load results in a shifting of the center lines of the core and roller shell toward each other.

An axial movement of the core relative to the roller shell takes place so as to assure uniformity of pressure. The movement of the center lines of the core and the roller shell is assured by the bearing assemblies without transmitting any movement from the core to the roller shell. Such axial movability of the core relative to the outer roller shell is achieved by the movable arrangement of even only one bearing.

To overcome the wear of the bearings, lubricant is fed directly thereinto by passageways extending through the shaft ends and through the core to the interior of the bearing.

A further advantage results in the fact that transmission of the turning movement or torque from the roller core or the roller shell in a reverse direction is achieved because of the fact that the core and the shell are connected by elastic elements which prevent the core from twisting relative to the shell and yet permit a virtually free approach without friction of the shell to the core during deflection.

Thus, the bending lines are not caused by the elastic elements and these elastic elements may be formed of arched annular discs of elastomeric material. The elastic elements themselves are desirably formed of arched annular discs of an elastomeric, such as rubber, and their inner and outer rims are respectively attached to the end faces of the rubber roller core and the roller shell respectively.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention consists of the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts as hereinafter more specifically described, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein is shown an embodiment of the invention, but it is to be understood that changes, variations and modifications can be resorted to which fall within the scope of the claims hereunto appended.

In the drawings wherein like reference characters denote corresponding parts throughout the several views:

FIG. 1 shows the preferred roller of the present invention in diagrammatic longitudinal section.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the bending lines.

Referring to FIG. 1, the roller core 1 is encircled by the shell or cylinder enclosure 3 and between the shell 3 and the core 1 is the open annular space 2.

There are two spaced bearing assemblies 4 and 5, each of which have outer female elements 20 and 21 and inside male elements 22 and 23. These assemblies 4 and support the shell 3 upon the core 1. The left assembly 4 is fixed in position and is not permitted to move axially,

as indicated by the double arrow 24, by clamping rings 6, which are attached to each side of the male elements 22. The assembly 5 may move axially in the direction 24 upon the core 1 in accordance with the amount of deflecdion of the core 1.

Both the assemblies 4 and 5 are prevented from axial movement 24 in respect to the shell 3 by the bushings 7 and 8, which fit inside of the ends of the cylindrical shell 3 and have outside flanges 25 and 26 which contact the ends 27 and 28 of the annular shell 3. The ends of the core 1 are reduced in diameter, as indicated at 29 and 30 at the left end and 31 and 32 at the right end, with the reduced diameter portions 30 and 32 bearing within the recesses 9 and 10.

The ends 29 and 30 and 31 and 32 have axial bores 11 and 12 respectively, which extend into the body of the core 1 to the area of the bearings 4 and 5, where they connect with axial bores continuing to the outer surface 33 and the inner surfaces 34 and 35 of the bearings 4 and 5 respectively. Lubricant, desirably under pressure, is fed in through the bores 11 and 12 and through the radial bores 13 and 14 to feed the faces 34 and 35 of the bearings 4 and 5.

The annular rubber discs 15 and 16, which are arched outwardly at their central portions indicated at and 41, have their inner and outer flanges attached respectively to the ends 27 and 28 of the shell 3 and the ends 42 and 43 of the core 1. These annular rubber discs 15 and 16 are held in position by the bolts or fastening elements 44 and 45 to the shell 3 and 46 and 47 to the core 1. These annular rubber discs 15 and 16 will transmit the turning movement from the core 1 to the annular shell 3 and at the same time will seal the annular space 2 in closing the bearings 4 and 5.

The bearings 4 and 5 may be varied in position but are approximately spaced one-quarter of the roller width away from the roller ends 42 and 43. As is indicated in FIG. 2, the deflection of the roller shell 3 with the arrangement shown in FIG. 1 will be h. At the ends it will be f These deflections are approximately equal and thereby there will be achieved a uniform high pressure over the width of the roller from 42 to 43.

Although preferably adapted for textile webs, the roller of the present invention may be used for other webs, of paper or the like, and frequently two rollers may be placed against each other to serve as squeeze rollers. The outer surface of this shell is desirably faced with a layer of contact material 50.

As many changes could be made in the above uniform pressure roller for textile utilization, and many widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departure from the scope of the claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What is claimed is:

1. A uniform high pressure roller for processing textile and other similar webs, consisting of a central elongated cylindrical core and an outer cylindrical shell spaced from said core, there being an annular space between the core and the shell and supporting members supporting the shell on the core at spaced intervals, said supporting members comprising a plurality of two ring bearing assemblies each having spherical cooperating surfaces and means to prevent axial movement of only one of the bearing assemblies relatively along said core.

2. The roller of claim 1 in which lubricant passages extend from each end of the cylindrical core to the contact faces between said cylindrical core and the adjacent bearing assemblies.

3. The roller of claim 1, in which the core is connected to the shell by means of end elastic closure members.

4. The roller of claim 1, the annular space between the core and the shell being closed at the ends of the roller by means of arched annular elastic discs and means to fasten the inner and outer edges of the disc respectively to the core and the shell.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 835,546 11/1906 Moore 29-116 R UX 2,648,122 8/ 1953 Hornbostel 2'91l3 AD 2,676,387 4/1954 McArn 29--116 AD X 3,380,138 4/1968 Steichele 29-116 R 3,406,438 10/1968 Reilly 291 16 R FOREIGN PATENTS 963,753 7/1964 Great Britain 29116 AD 1,229,303 3/1960 France 29-116 AD ALFRED R. GUEST Primary Examiner 

